I'm Chris and I am addicted to yard sales, garage sales, thrift stores and bargain hunting in general. Visit my site yardsalequeen.com - which I started in 1996.
"Smile" and "VV" (Vintage Value) are the names of two thrift stores I regularly shop at.
I grew up in Clifton Park NY but now live in Lusby, MD. I also lived in other exciting locales such as Schenectady, Watervliet (NY), and Charleston, SC.

Tuesday, July 01, 2014

I got married back in the Stone Ages known as the 80's and at the time I jut wanted a simple yellow gold wedding band and my engagement ring was a plain yellow gold band with a solitaire diamond. Well after several years of being married, somehow my wedding band shrunk and got too tight to wear. Funny how that happens. So for years I've just been wearing my engagement ring which got so thin that the band actually cracked and got deformed.

I went to a fancy jewelry store that was having a special on a $1 watch battery replacement so I took a very nice watch I plan on selling on ebay to get a $1 battery (of course I bought the men's Elgin watch still new in case, at a yardsale for cheap). I showed the saleswoman my sad looking engagement ring and she told me that it's a miracle that I haven't lost the diamond due to the flattened prongs and she told me that I shouldn't wear it.

So later that day, for the heck of it, I decided to check Craigslist and I see a gorgeous ring set made of white gold (which I wanted since I think yellow gold is sooo '80s) with mini diamonds in the band and it had no solitaire. Original receipt said the set cost $2450 without a center diamond. Long story short - a local woman had bought the set with her then fiance with the intention of putting her mother's solitaire in the center. The wedding didn't take place and now the woman just wanted $550 for the set. She wanted to meet at a public place, so I recommended to meet at the jewelry store where she purchased the set so I could talk to the jeweler. So we set up a time to meet and I asked the jeweler if the set could be resized for my finger and my diamond placed in the center. When he said yes, I handed the woman $550 in cash and left the rings at the store for the work to be done. So I did have to pay a bit more for the resizing and new head for my diamond (original head was for a marquis cut stone). But still, all in all, I am very pleased with my Craiglist wedding set bargain! And now I can sell my old set for scrap gold.

My old cracked deformed rings (diamond taken out at jewelers)

picture that was in the Craigslist ad

My new Craigslist Wedding Band set with my diamond installed. The two pics look a little different but that is due to the seller taking the original pic her camera/lighting and my pic taken with my own camera and lighting.

Yardsalequeen.com

I have a wide variety of interests: going to yard sales, garage sales, thrift stores, estate sales and rummage sales. After I had my son Jacob in 2000, I quit my job at a nuclear power plant after almost 10 years. Now I just sit home, eat bonbons and watch Ellen while I plan my strategy to hit next week's yardsales. Laugh. Dance. Yardsale.